Zack Wheeler starts tonight after strong games from Aaron Nola, Bryce Harper, Didi Gregorius

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More than seven months after signing a five-year, $118 million contract with the Phillies, Zack Wheeler will pitch in a competitive setting at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday night.

Wheeler will get the ball in an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles. First pitch is 6:05 p.m. and the game will be carried live on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Real life permitting, Wheeler lines up to start the second game of the shortened, 60-game regular season Saturday night against the Miami Marlins. Of course, the pitcher's schedule could change as he and his wife are expecting the arrival of their first child in the coming days. Wheeler will probably miss two turns in the rotation when the baby arrives.

J.T. Realmuto is expected to catch Wheeler in Sunday night's exhibition game. Realmuto caught pitcher Zach Eflin's simulated game on Saturday in Philadelphia and did not make the trip to Washington for that night's late-ripening Grapefruit League game against the Nationals.

The Phillies won that game, 7-2, on the strength of a pair of three-run homers by Didi Gregorius and Bryce Harper. Both came against Washington ace Max Scherzer.

Manager Joe Girardi used a lineup that featured most of his regulars, excluding Realmuto. Jay Bruce, projected to get many at-bats as the designated hitter, served in that role, and Roman Quinn started in center field. He scored a run and drove in one.

Aaron Nola was the story of the night for the Phillies. Though he has not yet officially been named as opening night starter, he basically locked up his third straight Game 1 start with five fairly brilliant innings of work. He did not allow a run while giving up just one hit and one walk. He struck out four. Nola was so efficient that he needed to stay on the mound for an extra out in the second and fifth innings just so he could get his pitch count up. (Those types of things are permissible and previously agreed upon by the teams in exhibition play.)

Nola got 17 outs on just 62 pitches. He is ready to make the jump into the mid-80s in the season opener Friday.

"I feel like I'm ready," Nola said after the game. "I think the five ups and downs that I did definitely helped. That's the biggest thing for starters, especially me — just to start and stop every inning, get off the mound. It's good conditioning for me to be ready."

Girardi liked what he saw of Nola.

"He was ahead in the count all night, his changeup was outstanding, just a really good performance," Girardi said.

Most of all, Girardi liked how his team responded to the new normal of playing a game in front of no fans against one of the best pitchers in the game after a 2½-hour bus ride.

"When you have a starter like Max Scherzer out there and you're able to get to him early, that's encouraging," Girardi said.

"It was just nice to see another team (after 2½ weeks of intrasquad games). I thought it had more depth and a different feel. All of us wonder what it's going to be like with no fans. Players use the fans for energy but there was a different feel tonight which made me feel better about what we're doing.

"Everyone learns to adapt. We've been doing this for 2½ weeks now so it starts to feel normal being in a ballpark with no one in there but you're playing games. We'll get more and more used to it as we play more games."

And the next one is Sunday night at Citizens Bank Park.

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